She stiffened, but didn't extract her hand. My suspicions were confirmed. Whatever way her mind worked, she was now convincing herself that there was a possibility I liked her too. But Mercy was by no means a fool. So I knew I had to tread lightly.
“Your blood...it's changed things,” I said quietly and her baby blue eyes widened to saucers.
“It has?” she breathed.
In all honesty, I wasn't lying. It had changed things. But only in so much as me feeling the weight of how monstrous this whole island was. And I was done playing a part in it.
“I can't stop thinking about last night.” Again, I wasn't really lying. Her blood played on my mind a lot. Why it was giving me such a powerful sense of who I was before I became a V. Why, of all the people I'd drank from, she had somehow provided me with more humanity than I'd ever received before. Not enough, though. Not enough to stop me from wanting to murder her. Brutally. Painfully.
I inclined my head and her grip tightened on my hand. The feeling in my chest was akin to a violent implosion. Her touch sickened me to my core. But I could see an advantage here, if I just let this play out far enough. I could get the upper hand.
“I'll see you tonight?” she confirmed and I nodded, flashing her the briefest of smiles – pretty much all I could muster even with my newfound acting abilities.
She released my hand, heading away and my mouth fell into a grimace as I returned my attention to the screen. There was a new, tantalising feeling growing in my chest. One that had evaded me for so long, it took me some time to figure out what it was.
Hope.
Selena
Humans are capable of terrible things when they're forced to survive. That's what I thought about now as I lay in the mud, waiting for the Vs to arrive. I didn't know if they could smell me through the thick layer of earth that surrounded me, but all I needed was a brief advantage.
I was certain this was all futile. But I wasn't the type to die easily. I wasn't about to give up. Maybe I would have once, before the day I snapped and killed my stepfather. But there's only so far a girl can be pushed before she becomes her own hero.
I wasn't ready to die, and yet I knew it was imminent. Two white stakes and a lot of gall, that's what I had. I shut my eyes, counting the soft footsteps. These Vs didn't move like Varick, with silent grace. And I reminded myself they weren't as strong either. At least four of them, I was certain.
The first arrived, falling over Marie's body immediately and ravishing her neck for blood. It was a female who looked malnourished, her bones protruding from the tatter of clothing she wore.
I counted them, my body starting to shake. With cold, with fear, with desperation. I was alive with terror.
One.
The second arrived. Iskender, the Turkish V; large and brutish. But not looking as strong as Ravenos had been. He fell next to the first V, feasting on Marie. I shut my eyes briefly, trying to block out the horrible sight. That could be me next.
Two.
Remorse did Marie no good now, so I forced it away.
The third and fourth burst into the clearing. Thankfully, they were like the first, perhaps even more haggard and weak, like the cave Vs had been. But their grotesque appearance only made me more afraid. The well-fed Vs looked deceptively human, but these creatures were monstrous.
Four.
Then the final one: Melinda, the female who had carried Sakura to the Blood Caves. Tall and lean, she moved through the trees with absolute poise, not even cracking a single twig under her boots. She had clearly grown strong. Probably having fed on countless girls.
Five.
Pushing away the weaker Vs, Melinda took her fill of Marie. And somehow that made me angrier than the others. She was more human than them, less animal. There was no doubt she'd done terrible things to the girls that joined me in this game. And if she was about to tear me apart, I was going to get my revenge for them first. For Vienna. For Marie.
One of the weaker Vs was flung into my path, scrambling and writhing in the mud as it tried to return to the feeding frenzy. Adrenaline fuelled my actions as I shifted forward on the ground, my pulse pounding in my ears.
Slamming the first stake into its heart, the V didn't even have time to scream before it was dead. I trembled like mad, wincing as I waited for an assault to come from the other Vs.
Incredibly, the advantage was still mine: none of the others had noticed their murdered comrade.
Grimacing, I licked the blood from my stake, desperate for strength. I needed to heal, and the more I drank, the quicker I recovered. The pain in my ankles reduced to nothing and I fought back a sigh of relief.
Perhaps I should have ran away, but watching the Vs feeding on Marie, who only lay there because of my actions, I felt determined to fight back. With my strength returned, courage slid into my chest and I made a decision that I was sure I'd soon regret.
Slinking forward like some serpentine swamp creature, slithering across the ground, I knew my second attack would not go unnoticed. With two stakes in hand, I planned my next move down to a T.
I raised my hand – it wasn't shaking any longer – angling the stake directly above the back of Iskender's neck. A rattling breath left my lungs as I drove it down, tip first into his skin with all the strength I could muster. Iskender screamed and wailed from the liquid silver that was pouring through his head.
The weakest V noticed me, its head whipping up, blood pouring from its peeled-back gums. With a gasp of fear, I twisted sideways, trying to prepare for his attack. He fell atop me with force and I was crushed beneath his weight.
This was it.
This was how I died.
The V scrabbled for my neck, biting, snapping and snarling. Somehow, I slammed my second stake into its back, screaming my defiance in its face as the tip met its heart.
Melinda tore the dead V from my body, chucking it aside. The final weakling ran at me on all fours, launching through the air. Melinda caught it in a headlock, snapping its head right off.
Death hung in the air like a poisonous gas. And I knew I was its next victim.
I swung my legs around, smashing into the side of hers, trying to bring her to her knees.
It was no good and she snarled as she bent down, taking hold of my neck and plucking me from the mud.
I hung in the air, choking as her nails dug into my throat. I kicked out and my foot connected with her stomach. She roared in pain. With all my might, I kicked again and she dropped me.
I felt for my stake on the ground, lost in the mud. Melinda gripped my hair, pulling me to my feet just as I got a hold of it.
I turned, kicking out at her shin and a sharp snap sounded. Melinda screamed in agony. I didn't waste another second, throwing my arm through the air and sinking the stake under her ribs, right on target.
She gasped, unable to believe what I'd done. I staggered back in shock, staring at her as blood began to run down her chest.
She sank to the ground and I wrenched the stake free, panting as I drew down lungfuls of the freezing air. Her eyes misted over and she fell in a heap at my feet, her red hair swirling around her in the mud.
Iskender was still gargling through the silver that was pouring over his cheeks. I moved to finish the job when more footsteps sounded through the trees. Cutting my losses, I turned on my heel and ran.
The mud had seeped through my clothes, turning my skin to ice. But the more I ran, the more my blood pumped around my body, heating my veins. I checked the map, hurrying on through the trees. Nothing would stop me now. Miraculously, I was still alive and that gave me hope that I stood a chance of making it to the checkpoint.
My calves burned as I forced my legs to move as fast as humanly possible.
The mist eventually began to thin and when I was sure it was no longer a threat, I tugged the mask from my mouth so I could breathe more easily.
The forest was endless and the dark pressing. I soon had to slow to a jog, clutching my side as a stitch ripped through it
.
I journeyed on and on, encountering no more Vs along the way. It was as if the trees themselves were hiding me, bending closer and giving me cover. I moved as quietly as I could, but as quickly too. I knew I'd tire soon, but every tree I passed was one closer to the checkpoint.
It couldn't be nearby yet. There was a third day remaining for this hellish round. And what lay up ahead surely wouldn't be an easy path toward safety.
The ground dipped away into a valley and an ache grew in my toes as they pressed against the inside of my boots. Eventually, the ground evened out into a rocky terrain, still surrounded by arching trees. Pine needles lay in a bed on the ground, softening my footfalls. I was thankful for it because I knew, with absolute certainty, that the Vs were still out here, hunting us. Hunting me.
I was weary with how far I'd travelled and the timer on my cuff revealed I'd been walking for hours.
The flow of water soon filled my ears and I discovered a river that met with a wide lake. The trees thinned toward its edge so I remained within the cover of the forest. If I was going to survive another night, I needed to find somewhere I could light a fire. Whenever I came across firewood, kept dry beneath overhanging rocks or fallen trees, I stuffed it into my bag.
As I followed the river to higher ground, I spotted a cave, sat back into the rocks, kept hidden by a sheet of Ivy.
I numbly marched toward it, creeping inside to check it was empty.
Apart from a few bones which I prayed didn't belong to a girl from a previous game, the place was perfect. It stretched back almost ten metres and there was even a small opening at the far end I could potentially scramble out of if a V entered from the other.
I set my pack down, preparing the wood I'd found in a pile at the heart of it. Then I returned to the river, picking a shallower pool that met with an uproot of rock, the water being slowed by the obstacle.
I washed away the muck on my body, scrubbing my hair, my face, my arms. As I returned to the cave, I came across some flints that I scooped up and took with me.
Inside, I began bashing the flints together. Over and over until finally a spark sailed into the smaller pieces of wood and took light.
I sighed as the fire grew, quickly warming the space. The smoke filtered out through the hole in the roof of the cave and I prayed that no Vs were near enough to smell it. Or at least, that they were distracted enough to ignore it.
The time ticked by slowly as I waited for my things to dry. I pulled my cloak around me, tugging it tight to halt my persistent shivering.
Sleep dragged me down to the cave floor. I fought it for a while, afraid that a V would find me here unawares. But without it, I would be useless tomorrow. So I sank into darkness, hoping that what awaited me in my dreams wasn't Elijah, or Marie's horrified expression as she realised what I'd done.
◐☼◐
Perhaps, in a way, I was like the Vampires. I'd met with death once, and survived. Something had changed inside me. Years of fearing what my stepfather would do to me. The creak of a door in the dead of night, my mother sobbing into a pillow in the next room, the stench of drink on his breath.
There was only so much I could go through before I didn't feel it any more. The first thing I'd truly felt in years was the twist of that blade in his stomach. It felt like breathing again. It felt like resurfacing from a mile-deep lake. That day I was wide awake. There was no guilt, no pain, nothing. It all went away. I didn't know if he took it from me, or if I gave it up willingly. But the part of me that feared him, was finally gone.
But no normal girl can kill someone and not feel it, right? So what made me different from those bloodthirsty Vs? From Varick who wanted nothing more than to taste the hot stream of blood down his throat? They wanted to feel again and so did I. We were all chasing life and it was evading every one of us.
I'd seen survival shows from time to time. And I thought what everyone probably did whilst they watched them: could I do that? Would I survive a life or death situation? Now I knew.
But I wasn't prepared for the reality as I woke up who-knows-how-many-hours after I'd fallen asleep in that cave. The cold, the thirst, the hunger. You can't imagine those things until they're tearing at your insides, demanding to be dealt with. And whilst I sheltered in that cave, watching snow begin to fall in thick clumps, bashing flints together over and over to bring the fire back to life until my hands bled, I realised, Varick was right. Suffering was worse than death. And we were all the same on this island, humans and Vs alike. We were all in pain, driven nearly mad by our needs.
As I struck the flints together once more, a spark shot from them into the mass of dry twigs I'd saved from the night before. But most of my stash had been burnt the previous day. A tiny, glimmer of a flame caught hold and I moved quickly to encourage it. Bending low, I gently blew on the mass of dry foliage until the pile went up in smoke. Tears leaked down my cheeks as I sagged onto the ground beside it, religiously feeding it every few seconds. My hands were numb and bloody and, as I gazed at them, I panicked.
Blood covered the flints, speckled my fingers, my dress. I had nothing to conceal it with. This game was designed to kill me. If the Vs didn't find me, the cold would drive its way into my bones. And at that moment, both were imminent.
The crunch and muffled stomp of approaching boots sounded beyond the sheet of white snowfall that whirled behind the ivy. Shuffling backwards, I reached for the white oak stake, clasping my fist around it so it was stained with a red print of my hand.
Perhaps a V had been close and caught the scent of my blood on the wind.
I shifted the stake in my right hand, angling it down, doing as Varick instructed. It was ironic that he was a lifeline to me now. His few words of advice were offering me advantages I wouldn't have had.
A blur of red passed through the mist.
Panic consumed me. Yesterday I'd been fuelled by pain, by a need to avenge Marie. Now, I was a sitting duck in this wretched cave. I could try to sneak out the back, but the thought of a V tearing at my legs whilst I climbed kept me rooted in place.
Done for, done for, done for.
My breath misted before me, perhaps one of the last to ever pass my lips.
I positioned my feet, crouching low, making myself a smaller target. I had one thing on my side, and that was desperation. I'd fight tooth and nail to survive. I'd cling to life even when it tried to shake me free. I was ready to bleed, I was ready to hurt, but I still wasn't ready to die.
I rushed to meet the shadow that came at me through the curtain of ivy.
Fight or die.
I was in that murderous place again, blood rushing through my veins, heating me to the core. Adrenaline was my friend, fuelling my muscles, readying me to face my predator.
“Selena!” Cass exclaimed, her crimson hair a mess of tangled leaves and mud, her pale skin so white it was nearly translucent. The olive-green dress she wore hung limply from her shoulders, the hem torn and tattered around her booted feet.
I ran to embrace her, unable to believe she was really here. But as I reached her, she shuddered and collapsed in my arms, sinking to the stone floor unconscious.
Her head lolled in my lap and I groaned my anguish as I dragged her to the fire, laying her beside it. Surely the world wouldn't be so cruel as to bring her here just to die before my eyes?
I fed the flames with all I had left, ripping strips of material from my dress to offer it more fuel.
It grew large enough to heat the space and, despite the sweeping snowstorm just feet away, the cave began to grow warm once more. Perhaps it was an illusion, perhaps if I'd sat in this cave on any other day, I'd have frozen to death. But today was different. Today we were going to live.
“Cass,” I rocked her gently, resting her on my folded legs to offer her any warmth I had.
Her lips were nearly blue. The only thing that comforted me was that she continued to shiver, assuring me she was alive.
I checked the timer on my watch. We had fifteen ho
urs to make it to the checkpoint. But all I could do at that moment was rock back and forth, hugging Cass to my body.
My eyelids soon began to droop. Sleep was dangerous. Sleep could get us both killed. But I hadn't had enough rest. The night had been long and I'd met with all kinds of horrors in my dreams, waking me in pools of sweat.
To keep my thoughts sharp, I began to sing. The song that sprang to mind surprised me. I hadn't heard it in years, not since I was a child. My mother used to sing it to me to help me sleep. She'd curl around me in bed and I felt so safe that I truly believed nothing could touch me. Not even Elijah. Mum was my shield, she was my saviour on so many nights. And I never had a chance to tell her.
Varick
There was a time in my human life that I went six days without food. Our supplies ran short on a voyage from Norway to Sweden. Hunger like that was agony, it near drove you mad. When you're pushed to your very limits, all those instincts born through thousands of years of evolution come rising to the surface.
I was reduced to an animal, my mouth salivating at the thought of fresh meat, the crunch of bread between my teeth.
Now, I'd take that kind of hunger any day to abate the pain that tore at my throat. I was a slave to the thirst. Before I'd drank from Mercy, I'd been plagued with violent visions, tearing at the necks of those girls out in the game. Especially her. Selena. The pain had eased to a dull ache, barely noticeable and giving me some of my old self back.
I'd watched Selena on the twelve foot screen in the auditorium, shredding the arms of my velvet seat with my nails whilst she took on five Vs. Five.
Never in the history of the games had any girl taken on so many and survived. The money poured into Selena's bids, skyrocketing. She was the favourite again. And I was, for now, on the side of every man in this room.
Selena's camera briefly took up the central screen, the volume emitting from it. She was cradling the red-haired girl in her arms, singing a soft, lulling song that reminded me of my time at sea. I shut my eyes and let the past in. It was always waiting, haunting me, the life I'd once loved. The memories remained crystal clear. I could practically hear Jameson's voice, shouting over the roar of the churning sea.
V Games (The Vampire Games Trilogy Book 1) Page 20
